Eckington Court Nursing Home

Updated 8 April 2020

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed by two inspectors and one medicines inspector.

Service and service type

Eckington Court Nursing Home is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and personal care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We used information we held about the home which included notifications that they sent us to plan this inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We also spoke with five relatives for their feedback. As some people were no longer able to give us verbal feedback, we also spent time observing interaction in communal areas. To support this we us the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

We spoke with ten members of staff including the registered manager, the deputy manager, a nurse, care staff and the activities coordinator. We also spoke with two visiting professionals.

We reviewed a range of records. These included eight people’s care records and fifteen medication records. We looked at one staff file in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found.

Updated 8 April 2020

About the service

Eckington Court Nursing Home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to 50 older people or people with disabilities. On the day of our inspection there were 49 people living there. The home has communal areas across two floors as well as accessible gardens.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Medicines were managed to reduce the risks associated with them to ensure people received them as prescribed. People received safe care. There were enough staff to support them and they were recruited to ensure that they were safe to work with people. People were protected from the risk of harm and lessons were learnt when mistakes happened.

People received caring and kind support from staff who respected their dignity and privacy. They were encouraged to be independent and staff understood their needs well. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff were skilled in understanding the needs of people and engaged them in meaningful activities. Staff knew them well and understood how to care for them in a personalised way. Care plans were informative and regularly reviewed to support them.

People were supported to maintain good health and nutrition; including partnerships with other organisations when needed. The registered manager was approachable and there were meetings in place which encouraged people and staff to give their feedback. People and relatives knew how to raise a concern or make a complaint.

The environment was adapted to meet people’s needs. Regular monitoring of the home ensured that quality of care was regularly reviewed, and improvement measures were in place. There was regular oversight of clinical governance.

People had care plans which were detailed, personalised and included how risk should be managed. They were regularly reviewed and staff were aware of people’s changing needs. The systems in place to monitor people’s health and wellbeing were effective and led to good outcomes for people.

There was good communication with staff and people who lived at the home to ensure their feedback was followed up. Communication was adapted to be accessible for people when there was an assessed need. The registered manager was approachable and there were meetings in place which encouraged people and staff to give their feedback. People and relatives knew how to raise a concern or make a complaint.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 5 June 2018)

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part by notification of a specific incident, following which a person using the service sustained a serious injury. This incident may be subject to a criminal investigation. As a result, this inspection did not examine the circumstances of the incident.

The information CQC received about the incident indicated concerns about the management of medicines. This inspection examined those risks.

We found lessons had been learnt and new governance systems implemented and we found no evidence during this inspection that people continued to be at risk of harm from this concern.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.